Hummus Cornbread Recipe

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Pssst…this super moist cornbread is vegan too!

I recently visited the Sabra home base for my job as spice mistress, and I had my mind blown when their executive chef made us a spice cake using hummus instead of butter. Let that sink in for a second: HUMMUS CAKE. You can do that?!?

In case I hadn’t made it abundantly clear by now, I love to bake. I tend not to mess with the chemistry of it all, instead focusing on confusing your taste buds with weird flavor combos, but learning that hummus makes an acceptable substitute for butter kind of boggled my mind. The cake was still sweet, but had a nutty undertone, and the craziest part – it was super alternativer moist.

My part in the visit was to chat about spices and how deliciously important they are. The rest of the party was made up of food bloggers, and being food bloggers, they are used to documenting recipes in meticulous detail and asked the chef for the recipe. The chef, being a professional chef, was all, “Oh I just threw it together. I’ll think about it and try to write it down.” This sort of thing can cause a nervous twitch with food bloggers. Needless to say, I didn’t really even know where to start – but couldn’t wait to try!

Let me just note here, since my mission was to evangelize about spices, I was under no obligation to create some sort of recipe. I just got super pumped about this revelation and thought this was a pretty good challenge. Though my baked goods are usually in the sweets realm, I do have a special spot in my heart for cornbread, and it occurred to me that using the savoriness of hummus would be a match made in heaven. Not to mention that moistness is of the utmost importance with cornbread.

I figured that as long as I was partway there, I might as well double my challenge and make it vegan. I have a few vegan friends and seldom provide for them anything even half as exciting as my butter and egg-laden offerings. This one’s for you guys!

Hummus Cornbread Recipe

• 1 cup medium grind cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup Sabra hummus
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup water
• Cooking spray

Tip: The best part about this recipe is that if you want spicy cornbread you can pick a spicy flavor; if you want garlicky cornbread you can use garlic, and so on.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Add hummus and stir until well mixed.

4. Stir in olive oil.

5. Add water and stir just until the batter has an even texture. It should be pretty thick.

6. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and pour in the batter. Smooth out, making sure to push some batter into the corners.

7. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

Let me tell ya, I got lucky. This baby is super moist, and the hummus does all of the flavor work for you. And the recipe is so easy! Pardon me, I’ll be over here patting myself on the back.

we heartsters – Are you a cornbread fan? And have you ever cooked with hummus? Share your ideas and recipes in the comments?

Heather blogs at foodforfunandpleasure and is a spice mistress extraordinaire at the Spice Station in Silverlake, CA.

photos: heather for we heart this